Offering a guarantee on an email campaign is rather unusual, and certainly when Schools.co.uk first started offering such guarantees we were pretty much on our own. Indeed it is possible that we still are the only company that does this.
Which raises two questions. One is why do we do it, and the other is what is the guarantee. So, to answer the “why?” question first…
There are four factors that make an email work in terms of getting results.
First it has to be sent using a server which is not blocked by major anti-spam services. Some low cost services do suffer in this regard.
Second it has to be sent to the right people using the right sort of email address. For example, it is possible to email school generic addresses (i.e. those that start Office@…) and then write “Attention Head of Maths” or whatever in the subject line.
Now such emails can get some sales, but emails addressed to the teachers’ personal addresses will always get a much higher response rate.
Third the email has to be constructed in such a way that the teacher will read it. Teachers currently get far fewer emails than they did four or five years ago, but they have over time got into the habit of deleting emails – as indeed most people have.
All of which means that the email needs a subject line and a headline that grabs attention, and needs to be written in a way that will stimulate the teacher’s interest.
Finally, in most cases the email should link to a page on your website which specifically follows on from the email, normally with the email giving details of the benefits of what is being sold, while the web page deals with the features.
Now in all this, we know that our servers are delivering the emails, and our email lists consist of up-to-date teacher addresses, which means that if an email fails to generate interest the most likely reason is going to be either the way it is written or the way the landing page is set out.
And this is where the guarantee comes in. The statistics we provide to our clients after each mailing reveal how many teachers looked at the email and how many clicked through to the web page. Our clients, of course, know how many orders they got.
So if the number of orders is lower than hoped for, we can then find out exactly where the problem occurred and help the company resolve the issue, usually with just a spot of re-writing.
Then, when that is done, we’ll send the email out again, free of charge. And we do all that because normally that produces sales, and that then results in our customer returning to us with further orders. So both we and our customer benefit.
If you would like to talk through your next email campaign with us, please do call 01604 880 927 or email Stephen@schools.co.uk
